Taking over my mind, body, soul is stress. I don’t have to let it but yet there it is an I have yet to do something to change this fact.
I’m back in school after completing my bachelors 4 years ago. I’m getting certified in Digital Graphic Design, which means I’m learning the Adobe programs and a crapload of nonsense, I mean, information about computers.
Eventually I’d like to design websites.. or maybe my direction will change.
Right now all I can think about is all this stress in my neck and lower back. It’s finals week and I’m at work right now. I have A LOT to do and I’m avoiding it at the moment.

I want to get inspired.
I want to do things and be around people that make me feel good.
I want to regenerate my life and I’m excited for a new leaf to turn once I finish my schooling in July 2012.
Hopefully I will be able to move to a city (Portland, San Francisco?) so I can feel like I’m more alive. This whole small town thang is crampin’ my style. I love Ashland, I love the beauty, but there is beauty everywhere and I will find it.

So stress.
It is here and it will be here, but how I manage it must change and fast.

I’m thinking after finals I will take Frankie (my dad’s lil Pug) on some long walks through Lithia Park. I will cook some delicious food. Drink a lot of tea. Go to the gym with lady friends. Do some yoga. Watch some Dexter. And just relax for while.

My good friend Mary Black recently graduated from Graphic Design school in Prague, Czech Republic. She created this RAD feminist magazine called GRAWR and I LOVE it! You can view the magazine here: http://grawrmagazine.blogspot.com/

I wrote an article for the magazine, along with three other self-proclaimed feminists, we all wrote about what it’s like to be a feminist in our country (mine being the USA). Here’s a copy of my article:

American Feminists Under Attack

I am an American. I am a feminist. I am and must consciously choose to be a strong woman. Some may call me a bitch or a slut. I have reclaimed these words to empower myself, to give myself an identity formed by my life experiences. On the same token, these words can be turned and used against me as a weapon in an instant flash.BITCH.
She is strong, opinionated, independent and powerful. She can have what she wants. She manifests and creates her own future and her world. Men are intimidated by her goddess powers. She stands up for herself and her beliefs. She refuses to be walked all over.SLUT.
She likes to have sex and isn’t ashamed by this fact. For centuries women’s sexuality has been repressed. Now we have more power over our bodies and have the freedom to sexually liberate ourselves if we so choose. We possess amazing sexual energy, men can’t resist our magnetic charms.

When these words are used to hurt us, they carry negative connotations that we then may internalize to be true. If I choose to be frank with my thoughts, and someone doesn’t like how assertive I’m being, they call me a bitch. If I choose to have more than one lover or I act confidently and flirtatious then I’m a slut.

In the 1970s women in the U.S. started to take back the power, along with people of color, homosexuals, and many other groups of otherwise oppressed people. As a girl growing up on the Westcoast of the U.S. in the 1990s, I was brought up to believe I could have everything a man can. However, this doesn’t mean that I get treated the same way that men do. I experience sexism in my daily life in many different ways.

In this society, I get called a bitch when I act tough (like a “man”) or a slut when I am sexually open. On the flip-side, a man will be commended for this same behavior. He is a “real” man for being strong and confident, he is a pimp or a stud for getting laid often. I don’t like the fact that I have to fight to convince people in this country that it’s okay for women to behave this way. I hope that someday women and men will truly be treated as equals, instead of this false sense of equality that America claims to possess. I love this country, but I hate sexism, and until I can act in the same behavior as a man and be treated the same as him, I will not be satisfied. That is why I’m a feminist in this country, because I believe that we must keep educating and fighting for justice for all.

Cultural Appropriation: The unhealthy aspect of multiculti, where a more powerful culture raids a less powerful neighboring culture … and appropriates aspects of that culture without proper acknowledgment of the “home culture” or understanding the cultural context from which these aspects spring. Examples: yoga, Buddhism, hip hop and ebonics-derived slang, Asian and Tribal tattoos, etc.

To many, the term implies that culture can actually be “stolen” through cultural diffusion.

So this brings us to “Rasta Trent“, an amazing audiovisual clip from Saturday Night Live. Trent is a white boy from the suburbs, going to University, singing and posing as a Rastafarian. It is satire, yet the irony of it is that the cultural appropriation of a black culture by white people is so extremely prevalent and normalized in this society.

Here we have Trent, an all-American, blue-eyed, blonde-haired white kid, attempting to act like he’s a black Rastafarian from Jamaica.

It hits the spot for me, I can laugh at it because it is absolutely ridiculous. It is the epitome of offensive theft of an oppressed culture. Exposing how white boys want to be cool by acting like they belong to or can understand what it’s like to be apart of a black culture. All I see is blonde dreads, complete white/middle class privilege, and a total lack of awareness. The best part is when Rasta Trent is singing and he walks by a group of black Rastafarians, and suddenly gets really nervous and mumbles his words, then picks up again once he’s passed them. Talk about white guilt to bring you some self-awareness. Oh and WTF is Nayabingi!?!?

It’s a male privilege checklist for heteronormative males (straight men) but has valid points for all. The checklist is to bring awareness to men, how sexist behavior can freak out the women that they are attempting to hit on, and how they can act respectfully instead of acting like a total creeper.

For Teh Menz
An unfortunate aspect of the patriarchy is that men are brought up to view sexual harassment as natural and acceptable. Well, it’s not. And female feminists know and male feminists know it. But…male feminists may need some help. Just what does “Check your male privilege!” mean? After all, an unfortunate aspect of privilege is that the privileged are blind to it.

A Feminist Man’s Guide To Interacting With Women in Public

You – general you – are in a public sphere. You spot a women you view as attractive.

Male Privilege Check #1 – The Blatantly Unacceptable: Do not holler. Do not catcall nor honk. Do not gawk or leer and stare. It’s creepy and unnerving. Be discrete. When speaking to her, look her in the eyes. No, not the breasts. The eyes! The eyes!

Male Privilege Check #2 – Your Sense of Entitlement: There are things that you need to be considering internally. Is she already in a monogamous relationship with someone? Does she even like men? Is she looking to have someone flirt with her?

Male Privilege Check #3 – Be Aware of Your Environment: Is it twilight? Night? Are you in the city? The suburbs? Was there any kind of gendered crime committed in the area recently? Is she with friends? Alone?

Male Privilege Check #5 – Her Reaction: Be particularly aware of how she responds. Does she smile nervously? Begin looking around to see if there are other people in the vicinity? Start mentally plotting her escape? Glare at you? Curse you out? Reach for her cell phone? Her can of mace? A big stick?

Male Privilege Check #6 – Exit Strategy: If she exhibits any of the above, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE. Do not attempt to guilt her into continuing the conversation. Women are socialized not to create a scene. Do not call her a “bitch”, “slut”, nor “whore”. Do not chase after her. Do not laugh. Politely smile, wish her a nice day, and LEAVE.

Male Privilege Check #7 – Male Guilt: Most importantly, keep in mind what is important. You may be a perfectly decent guy, a feminist, and intended no harm. She may curse you out or go home and rant about you to friends. Deal with it. It is more important for her to be as non-threatened as possible than for her to understand that you have good intentions. It’s not about you. Women are also socialized to give you the benefit of the doubt. There’s no need to plead your case.

All snark is snark between friends and fellow feminists. Hope this helps someone.

Even though one third of American adults are considered to be fat, we still are a heavily sizist country, which in turn fuels the fire to a hurtful cycle of oppression based on size. Not to mention this prevalent sizism aids in the rapidly increasing amount of people (mostly young women) with eating disorders.

In the United States:

7 million girls and women struggle with eating disorders.

1 million boys and men struggle with eating disorders.

Overweight people are targets of hatred and discrimination. Obese women are subjected to more social pressure than obese men. Hatred and disrespect towards fat people are seen in multiple places, including media outlets, where fat people are often ridiculed. Discrimination comes in the form of lack of equal accessibility to transportation and employment. Anti-fat stigma and aggressive diet promotion have led to an increase in psychological and physiological problems among fat people. and or held up as objects of pity.

Weight discrimination, especially against women, is increasing in U.S. society and is almost as common as racial discrimination, two studies suggest.

Reported discrimination based on weight has increased 66% in the past decade, up from about 7% to 12% of U.S. adults, says one study, in the journal Obesity. The other study, in the International Journal of Obesity, says such discrimination is common in both institutional and interpersonal situations — and in some cases is even more prevalent than rates of discrimination based on gender and race. (About 17% of men and 9% of women reported race discrimination.)

Among severely obese people, about 28% of men and 45% of women said they have experienced discrimination because of their weight.

The fat acceptance movement, also known as the size acceptance movement, fat liberation movement or fat power, is a grassroots effort to change societal attitudes towards fat people.